Photography Special Effects

Ever had that moment where you wish you could take a photo in slow motion? or maybe have a trail of fire behind a speeding car?

Now is the time for you to achieve those amazing photographs that you always wanted to take and with Evan Sharboneau’s book “Trick Photography and Special Effects” you’ll be able not only to see how those special effects are done, but you’ll have 300 page step by step guide at your fingertips ready for you to create those special camera effects yourself!

By the way, did i mention that you also get over 9 hours of tutorial videos to help you on your way?

Trick Photography and Special Effects 2 is the second edition and has over 300 pages, Evan has also written it in a way that allows you to easily search in the contents for specific things your looking for and go straight to it without needing to read the whole book. It does have its benefit if you start from the beginning and read through to the end, as i found, the wealth of information provided starts off at a basic level and progresses more sophisticated as you go along. The most advanced techniques are built on by the material you’ve previously learned at the start.

In the first part of the book he starts off talking about basic equipment and advises that if your just starting out to use what you have until you know for sure what you want and need, that includes cameras, and tripods. He also discusses Photoshop and which of the three packages are the best for you to get.

After this, the real fun starts as he gets into the nitty gritty stuff. Out of all the photography eBooks Ive read, I have to say this one has an extremely laid out format to follow. The table of contents has three main sections: Long Exposure Effects and Light Painting, Trick Photography and Special Effects, and finally Photoshop Projects.

My favorite section was the Photoshop Projects, which i found to be amazing. it starts with a detailed explanation of layer masks and moves on from there. To tell you the truth before I read Evans book I had no idea about layer masks at all, they confused the hell out of me, but not now, after following his guide step by step, he helped me to understand everything there is to know about layer masks.

Which was a good thing as layer masks are a crucial part for creating photo special effects, so learning how to properly use them is key. Not only is the text easy to follow and has detailed explanations, there are numerous photos showing the different stages of setting up your special effects.

Added Bonus:

If the 300 pages of quality detailed information wasn’t enough, you also get access to over 50 instructional videos. In these videos Evan demonstrates all the techniques in the book, in fact the video library is sectioned off in the same three headings as the book., plus there are some videos that cover additional material, so depending on how much you want to learn, you may even get more value out of the videos!. To be honest, I really do think the videos alone are worth more than the price you’ll pay for the entire package.

All the videos are recorder in HD, so depending on your internet connection may take sometime to load, but they are well worth it. Evan goes into great detail, demonstrating trick photography and special effects techniques.